Do these Tuya Repeaters come with the USB-outlet plug in or do I need to buy those separately?
Also, when I pair them with Hubitat, are there any special pairing instructions, or do I just put them where I expect to use them and pair from there?
I now have 6 of these IRIS sensors and I definitely notice slower activation on the 1st floor which is further away from my HE. So I'm thinking to get 2-3. I assume that signals traveling through several repeaters will still work?
You can use any USB outlet that supports up to 1A load.
Hey there @aaiyar and @waynespringer79 and @dbhosttexas,
Have any of you observed weird behavior from these IRIS V3 sensors during lightning storms? Last night my wife told me that the lights in the kids room where I have one of these sensors on a motion-based routine to turn lights on/off kept turning on every few minutes in the middle of the night. She thought it was happening every time there was lightening/thunder but wasn't sure. It definitely wasn't happening due to motion because the sensor is tucked away in a corner facing away from everyone in the room and behind a section of wall.
Never seen that …
@Krishna It's not necessarily the motion sensor, but the switch / bulbs.
Power fluctuations to the devices seem to cause this behavior.
Most, but not all mains powered Zigbee devices are repeaters. To my knowledge, no battery powered devices are repeaters, thus if you have only battery powered Zigbee devices, you do not have an actual mesh network.
It's in no small part the reason I put Zigbee smart plugs more or less everywhere...
So I could probably improve my Zigbee device performance by buying a bunch of Zigbee smart plugs?
One other thought: I have several of the Phillips hue devices, in fact quite a few of them- bulbs and LED strips. Don’t those all operate with Zigbee?
Are they on a Hue bridge (hopefully)?
Yes. By which i mean that they are connected to the Philips Hue bridge and I have connected that to Hubitat using the official App.
I ask because, next to the bathroom where I am getting inconsistent performance from the IRIS v3 Zigbee motion sensors, i have 6 Philips Hue bulbs in my master bedroom which work just fine. Wouldn’t these create a Zigbee mesh that would improve my master bathroom zigbee motion sensors response times?
Of course, I ordered that Tuya Zigbee repeater and when it comes in, I will see if that helps. I’m just confused as to why Philips devices work so well despite also being Zigbee as compared to my motion sensors.
No - that mesh is specific to your Hue bridge (as the zigbee coordinator). They will not repeat for something paired to a different zigbee coordinator (like the sensor paired to Hubitat).
ahh, ok. That makes more sense.
So here’s another question. Would it make more sense for me to buy Zigbee smart plugs instead of dedicated Sigbee repeaters just so I could take advantage of the smart plug capability? I am understanding that the smart plugs would also help with creating a Sigbee mesh and act like repeaters, yes?
Your call, But that would work fine. Just keep in mind that the plugs I linked to have a max load rating of 10A.
See what happens when I look away? Somebody answered the question!
And yes, I believe most smart plugs max at 10 amps.
EDIT:
So long story short, in my installation anyway, I do not have a bulb bridge, but am running my Sylvania Smart+ bulbs directly. I know not optimal, but it is what it is...
I have a grand total of 7 Iris V3 smart plugs, 1 GE / Jasco smart plug with power reporting, and 10 currently unused Ikea Tradfri Wireless Control Outlets, A.K.A. Zigbee smart plugs.
The Iris Smart plugs are set up to control bedside lamps in the bedrooms. The home Office has a desk lamp hooked up to it, and the kitchen, well it is just sitting there as a repeater. I can, and do put holiday lights inside the window that I can control with this one.
I had originally thought to replace all the Trafri outlets, but they are very useful for controlling box fans, holiday lights etc... A short, and I mean 6 to 12" extension cable to get the Tradfri away from the outlet enough to unblock the second outlet is fine for what I will use it for. And then are plentiful, cheap, and common for computer usage. The ones I used are from Cable Matters are are at https://amzn.to/3z96OkP We use them a lot with UPSes and connecting SOHO grade equipment into switch / server racks and rack mounted UPSes or PDUs. But I digress...
Back onto the subject at hand. IF you are having drop outs due to the mesh not reaching, and you have Zigbee bulbs in the same space but are not acting as a repeater to the same Zigbee Network, then no, your mesh will be incomplete, and yes you should use Zigbee Smart plugs instead of just repeaters. Mostly so you don't loose function of an outlet.
And as stated above, and by others, be careful of the load you put on the smart plugs. Most are limited to 10 amps...
The Ikea Tradfri Wireless Control Outlets have been easy to pair on both Smartthings, and Hubitat, pretty much trouble free, and aside from the chunky form factor, and in the case of hte living room TV lack of ability to monitor power, have been what I needed which was basic outlet control and Zigbee repeater. And to top it off, have a super low price of just at $10.00
Just to be clear... what kinds of things would 10A limitation be a problem for using with smart plugs?
I would assume it should be ok for most lamps, diffusers, and other small plug in devices, right?
Correct
I believe basically anything under 1,000w should be fine. So no hair dryers, coffee makers, curling irons, air conditioners or the like. But things like table lamps, desk fans, vaproizers, etc... should be fine.
On the Z-Wave side - the Zooz Zen15 is a robust plug... I use it to power and monitor an exterior drain pump.
https://www.getzooz.com/zooz-zen15-power-switch.html
If you really want to go heavy duty then there is this from Aeotec:
So I got the Tuya Smart Zigbee repeater, got it paired on the first try, have it plugged into an outlet using one of those iPhone USB charger thingies, and sure enough, like you said, it's paired as "device." Is there anything else I need to do to configure it? Right now the device page for this has nothing listed under "current states" which I assume is normal?
Also, if this does not fix my sensor response problem, then, remembering what you guys said about Zigbee smart plugs acting as repeaters, I thought about getting a couple more of them. This was the one I think you recommended previously: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B082PSKRSP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I've had good results with them as smart plugs... I assume these would also act as Zigbee repeaters when plugged in, yes?
BTW if I haven't said it enough in the past, thank you for literally all of the guidance you've given me on getting things working!
Correct. However, if you want, you can change the driver to "Ikea TRADFRI Signal Repeater". If you click on "Get Link Quality" or "Get Route Table", it will give you information about the LQI or the route table in the log window (keep a log window open!).
I haven't used the Sonoff plugs you linked to, but they should work as long as they are plugged in. These are the ones that I have used, and confirmed that they work as repeaters. They are currently ~$10 for a 2-pack. Can't beat that price!
Download the Hubitat app
